Caste in India: The Facts and the System c6.s7.46

c6.s7.46

The ceremonial of expulsion is significant : the funeral ² of the guilty person is conducted in due form ; it is indeed civil death, with all its consequences. If it be a man who is expelled, his wife and children can only remain pure and keep their place in the caste by abandoning the outlaw, and he is disqualified from inheriting¹ and adopting.² This is perfectly natural, since the children even who are born to him after his eviction share his fate; they cannot be reinstated unless they leave their father and also submit to a penance.